About

Deadwood 1876: A Safe-Robbing Game of Teamwork & Betrayal

$587,340

pledged of $25,000 goal

14,002

backers

There’s gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and you’ve come to find (or steal) your share. You’re staying at one of the three major establishments in Deadwood where you and your associates are working together to steal some of the gold-filled safes floating around town. But you suspect that the “friends” you’re working with are secretly plotting to keep all the gold for themselves. Will you be ready to turn on them before they shoot you in the back?

Deadwood 1876 is a social deduction game where you'll work with teammates to find and collect gold. But in the end, the team with the most gold will have to fight each other to the death to determine the winner! Will you spend your turns helping your team find gold, or preparing to defeat your own teammates in the Final Showdown?

2-9 Players. 20-40 minutes. Ages 13+.

1 Magnetic book box

1 Faux leather pouch

1 Rulebook (includes character biographies and Deadwood history)

3 Wood carved platforms

9 Wood star pawns

10 Wood engraved dice

79 cards (9 Characters, 20 Safes, 50 Deadwood)

The game comes in a magnetically-closing faux book. Extra room is provided in the center section should you desire to sleeve the cards.

The wood establishment platforms conjure the look of an old western storefront. Since each platform is stained and laser cut, the wood grain and color will be slightly unique in each copy of the game. The platforms are laser cut in the negative space, so each letter and design comes outwards.

The ten wooden dice each use custom designs instead of standard dots. Each colored dice corresponds to a gun in the game and has different values depending on the gun. Each die is colored and engraved.

Nine wooden stars act as the pawns in the game.

The dice and stars come in a faux leather bag.

The 9 characters are based on people who actually lived in or visited Deadwood in 1876. Character biographies are included in the rule book. Each character card is colored on the front, and black and white on the back.

The 20 Safe cards are designed to look like genuine safes from the 1870's.

Each of the 50 Deadwood cards contains a gun on top and a special item on the bottom.

In Deadwood 1876 you’ll use cards from your hand to try to win Safes from other players. Safes contain Badges, Gold, or Showdown Guns. Near the end of the game, players with Badges get extra turns. After the final turn, the team with the most Gold will advance to the Final Showdown. There, teammates will have to fight each other to the death using Showdown Guns. The last person alive is the winner!

Note: The video above gives a brief overview of rules. Strategy tips, rule clarifications, advanced optional rules, card descriptions, and character biographies are all included in the game rule book. We currently have rules available to view in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch on our website. You can also view the contents of this page in Chinese.

Valuable items are hidden behind each Safe. You won't know which Safes have been shuffled in, so every round will play out differently.

Each player always has 4 Deadwood cards in their hand. You'll get to play one card from your hand each turn, and then it will be replaced from the deck.

Each card can either be used as the gun listed on top, or the special item listed on the bottom. The Holster lets you help out teammates, the Stetson lets you view hidden Safes, the Horse lets you abandon your team for a different one, and the Duster lets you improve your hand of cards.

The more powerful guns, such as the Messenger, have higher values on its dice, whereas worse guns, such as the Pepperbox, have lower values and zeros on its dice. For shootouts you'll need to manage your hand and decide when to use a powerful gun and when to gamble with your weaker guns.

Each player takes on the identity of one of nine people who actually roamed the streets of Deadwood.

A game in progress.

This game requires teamwork, but also actively punishes you if you play too nice. That balance makes every round insane. - Sam J.

Mix strategy with the best and the worst of the Wild West, and you get Deadwood. - Charlotte C.

The strategy never gets old and I consistently find myself playing with new options every single game. -Spencer H.

Backstabbing has never been so much fun. This game keeps you on your toes. It is not one you can play half-heartedly. -Abigail S.

The more I play Deadwood, the less likely I am to trust other players. When I trust them too much, they take my gold and shoot me with a gun they stole from me. I always regret it. -Patti S.

A great game (in our opinion), needs three things: solid mechanics, an awesome theme, and beautiful design.

Mechanics

Deadwood is a balance between teamwork and selfishness. If a player uses all of their best Deadwood cards and Badges to hunt down Gold for their team, they’ll be defenseless to fight against their teammates in the Final Showdown. But if a player only goes after Showdown Guns and saves all of their best cards, their team might not have enough Gold to actually reach the Final Showdown. If someone on your team doesn’t seem to be pulling their weight, they’re probably plotting to use your Gold to reach the Final Showdown and then destroy you! There may come a point when you need to attack, mislead, frame, abandon, or banish your own teammates.

Theme

When we were searching for the city for the 3rd Volume in the Dark Cities Series, we fell in love with Deadwood almost immediately upon learning about it. Large deposits of gold were discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota in late 1875. Word quickly spread about the gold and the town of Deadwood was born almost overnight in early 1876. It soon reached a population of 5,000 miners, gamblers, prostitutes, outlaws, and businessmen. Lawlessness was prevalent as people flocked to the town to find (or steal) their share of the gold. Deadwood quickly became an infamous western town where old west legends lived and died.

The book has a raised UV effect so that all designs and logos pop out from the cover and spine.

Design

The illustrations from Sarah Keele and graphic design from Holly Hancock take players into the world of the wild wild west! We used wood and leather textures with our components, old west Victorian charm with our book and character cards, and cards that look like antiqued metal Safes built by the "Facade Safe & Lock Co" similar to Safes from the time period. The goal of our design is to take you and your friends deep into the raucous, chaotic, exciting world of Deadwood, South Dakota in its prime. You can view time-lapse videos of Sarah illustrating Molly Johnson, Solomon Star, Seth Bullock, Kitty Leroy, and the Holster.

We've already made many "premium" choices for the game (wooden platforms instead of cardboard, faux leather bag instead of plastic, wooden star tokens instead of standard pawns, faux book instead of standard box, etc.), because we believe in publishing awesome games regardless of funding amounts. But if we reach the following milestones, we'll be able to make Deadwood 1876 even better!

Note: Some of these upgrades will be exclusive to the 1st Edition of Deadwood 1876. Backing on Kickstarter is the only way to guarantee that all upgrades listed above will be included in your copy of the game.

We've been working hard on logistics all year and for this campaign we're very pleased to offer free US shipping at all reward levels, and low international shipping rates. We are also using fulfillment companies around the world so that you won't be charged extra customs fees. If you are mistakenly charged customs fees when the games arrive, just let us know and we'll pay you back. (For EU backers, we will be shipping games from Germany so you won't have extra customs fees)

Because of cheaper shipping, we’re happy to be selling Deadwood 1876 at prices that are even cheaper than the early bird levels of our previous two Kickstarter projects!

Deadwood 1876 is Volume 3 in the Dark Cities Series! Each Volume is a stand-alone game that comes in the same sized faux book box, focuses on a particular city and year, and includes a dark or mysterious element in its game play.

Volume 2: Salem 1692 (Published as "Salem" in 2015 thanks to Kickstarter! Second edition published as "Salem 1692" in 2017). Click the links to view the original Kickstarter campaign or our website.

Both of our released games have sold over 20,000 copies and are now played around the world! We're already hard at work on Volume 4, and we will continue expanding the series. We know your game closet is a mess. Start your bookshelf collection of games with the Dark Cities Series! See Add-Ons section below for details.

If your pledge includes at least one copy of Deadwood 1876 then you can add an unlimited amount of Tortuga 1667, Salem 1692, or extra copies of Deadwood 1876 to your pledge! Just add the indicated amounts below to your pledge amount without changing your reward level. After the campaign we'll send out a survey where you'll select which games you'd like to be added to your order based on how much extra money you pledged. If you have any questions, please see the FAQ section or shoot us a message.

Your shipping cost does not increase at all regardless of your location or the amount of add-ons you order. You will receive all add-on items at the same time that all of the Kickstarter rewards are received (estimated delivery October 2018).

Examples:

You are outside the US and want 2 copies of each game. Select the $43 reward level and pledge $129 ($43 two-copies reward level + $6 reward level int'l shipping + $40 two add-ons of Salem + $40 two add-ons of Tortuga).

You are in the US and want 6 copies of Deadwood, 1 copy of Salem, and 10 copies of Tortuga. Select the $110 reward level and pledge $300 ($110 six-copies reward level + $20 Salem add-on + $170 Tortuga large group add-on).

If you want Deadwood and Salem, Deadwood and Tortuga, or one of each game, we have reward levels available for those options.

Our illustrator Sarah Keele wants to turn you into a Dark Cities character! During the campaign Sarah is offering a limited number of discounted custom portraits in her shop! We will then turn this portrait into a card that you'll be able to use during game play in your copy of Deadwood 1876!

Custom Character Cards are also available in her shop for Tortuga 1667 and Salem 1692. Discounts are also available in her shop during the campaign for other art from the game.

Game creation and graphic design is by Facade Games, owned and operated by Travis and Holly Hancock (and our little cheerleader Margo). Learn more at www.facadegames.com, or follow us on facebook, instagram, or twitter.

Illustrations were drawn by Sarah Keele. Follow her beautiful artwork on instagram.

Photography was by Jes Childress. See more of her pictures at her website.

A huge thank you to the hundreds of hours put in by our many play-testers. This game would not exist without your ideas, feedback, and criticisms. Thank you!

We fell in love with the Kickstarter community when we launched our first game, Salem. We had another great experience with the launch of our second game, Tortuga 1667. The feedback, support, trust, and positivity from the community was incredible. We're proud to reward our Kickstarter backers with discounts on the very 1st edition of the game, the lowest shipping costs we can offer, first-in-line knowledge and insight into the project, and a direct line of communication to us as the creators. We also take your feedback into account before launching production. We consider each Kickstarter backer to be a close ally in our game-making endeavors and we'll do everything we can to protect your trust in us.

Risks and challenges

As you can see from our photos, samples of the game have already been produced by our manufacturers and designs are complete. We just need to raise the funds and say go! We will do everything in our power to achieve on-time delivery, and we will reach out concerning any unforeseen circumstances. Our first two projects, Salem and Tortuga 1667, were delivered on time to backers as promised.

Salem: "I have backed over 46 projects and I just wanted to say this project has been an absolute delight to have been a backer for. Your updates have been insightful, but not overbearing. You clearly put a lot of time, thought, and effort into this game and it really shows. I was impressed with how fast this project came together. It was a fast, well organized campaign. Kudos to you and thank you for a wonderful end product. I couldn't be happier." -Snuffles00

Tortuga 1667: "I backed this and another project that ended a day prior at the same time as my first kickstarters. The way things have gone with the other project have given me an even greater appreciation for not only the great game you made, but the well executed Kicktarter. Thank you again!" -Bored Gamer

Please never hesitate to message us directly with comments, concerns, or suggestions.